Monday, 18 July 2011

My Brazilian HAIR: Weave Install

"I was so pleased when the brought forward date of my install arrived, however I was a little aprehensive as I ended up having to get my mum to install it for me, which is not what I had planned!"

On Friday evening I went ahead with my pre install Wash Day routine. Then on Saturday morning after rinsing the deep conditioner from my hair and blowdrying I applied growth oil to my roots, moisturised and sealed each of the 4 sections of my hair before putting my hair into 4 x bantu knots.

16inch and 14inch wefts straight out the packaging and lightly finger combed

Also on Friday evening I had to make sure that the Brazilian hair, which I purchased from Nish Hair, was
washed and air dried ready for installation the following day. I detangled the hair using my jumbo rake and then washed the hair using John Frieda Moisturing Shampoo followed by the Moisturising Conditoner from the Brilliant Brunette range. I then airdried the wefts without combing through. Once dried I combed the wefts, there were no tangles and there was also no shedding whatsoever!

16in and 14in wefts washed and conditioned prior to airdrying

14in and 16in wefts airdrying

Fully airdried, the weft on the right (16in) has been combed through, the other has not

I am very grateful to my mum for doing my hair, although I reckon she won't be wanting to do it again in a hurry. I am always been a complete nightmare when getting my hair done, especially by my poor long suffering mum! We constantaly have a battle between the two of us, which always takes me right back to being 5yrs old. Infact, it takes us both right back to those days, although Ican get away with alot more nowadays, although I think I was driving my mum crazy on Saturday and she will relish telling my sister the details whilst they cackle away at my expense. It does me me laugh though. I think I excelled in doing her head in with my constant leaping from the chair to undo her sewing if I felt it was too tight!!! Yep, she won't want to go anywhere near my head again in a hurry....!

Weave Install

1. Firstly, I sectioned off my leave out hair at the front and sides of my head. This must have taken me between 30-45mins in total as I wasn't sure how much hair I wanted to leave out. I didn't want to leave out too much but I wanted to leave out just enough. This was harder to do than I thought! I left out a minimal amount at the sides and just enough to cover the tracks and have a side parting if I want to.

2. Next my mum began with the braid pattern. I decided to have my hair plaited verticaly with two horizontal braids at the nape. I was very impressed that the braiding did not hurt at all! I even commented to my mum that she was braiding with no pain at all, apparently it is easier to do this when you are not plaiting in exetension hair.....

Braid pattern top view

3. After the braids were in we set about securing in a weave net. This is the first time I have ever used a weave net and to be honest, neither of us knew what the heck we were doing!! When I put it on I was at a loss of how to secure the weave net to the top of my braids and that was when I realised that I had intended to put in a perimiter braid around the leave out hair at the top of my head. I had already left out minimal hair and now was faced with either undoing all of the braids and starting all over again, or sacrificing some of my leave out hair in order to put in a small braid. The latter was what I opted to do and we used a little extension hair left over from my holiday braid install which I was all up for throwing out at the time. My mum does know best the majority of the time....don't tell her I said that!!!

Braid pattern

4. Once the extra braid had been put in we set about securing a weave net. I had decided against using the normal weave net as I had a hunch that I would not get on with it at all as there is really limited space available to get access to your scalp. For me, I know from the past that itchiness is a really issue for me when wearing weaves. This time around I really wanted to try a net to a) protect my cornrowed hair from being rubbed directlyby the wefts and b) to give a smoother finish to the weave. We used the net that looks like fishnet stockings, as this seemed more suitable for me as the holes are more adjustable than the traditional net. My mum stictched this to the perimiter for my hair then I pulled it so it was comfortably tight, secured a hair band around the top and then sewed under the hair band until the ends were secured together the we cut the net directly above the stitched ends for form a secure cap to sew the wefts onto. I then cut the net to expose my leave out hair and my mum cut off the seam around the bottom. The net the shrunk right back up to the ends that were stitched to the circumfrance of my braids.

5. Then my mum began to install the wefts, starting at the back and without cutting the wefts she stiched the wefts through the net and onto the braids folding over the wefts when ending the current line and moving onto the next. If there was not a braid available, she could stitch directly onto the net. I even had a go at this when we got around to the front section. I made sure that the thread used was spritzed with my moistursing mix of Bee Mine Luscious Balanced Moisturiser and water mixed in a spray bottle to try to prevent the roughness of the cotton ripping my hair. This method worked a treat and made the sew in experience a less stressful one for me...!

In the end, we completely used both packs of hair resulting in a medium full appearance, which I think looks exactly like the density of my clip in's which I love! I think it looks really natural and not like a weave at all (at the moment!) but if I brush it with my paddle brush then it looks alot fuller. I am yet to try my Caruso rollers or my flexi rods. I am sure I will get good results with both. I really am impressed by the Brazilian hair, which is so soft, light and incredibly versitile. I gave the hair a slight dusting yesterday, just to level it up at the back but other than that it there have been no issues. I have probably shed one hair when taking out my hair band this morning. I lost no strands when washing, combing or installing the wefts. I am so impressed!!!!

Back of finshed weave

My HAIR Today

Below are a few things that I will be changing next time round:

I will remember to plait a small perimiter braid around my leave out hair at the front/top, or I may not bother to put in the perimiter braid at all. I think this will give me a flatter base.

I will leave out more hair at the sides as this will help to cover the tracks easily. Also I think the small amount I have out will probably lead to breakage after 6-8weeks despite caring for it by moisturising, sealing and conditioning. Only time will tell I suppose.

I am undecided about leaving more hair out at the top as having less leave out makes it easier to blend and the difference in texture is less apparent.

I will put in slightly more hair next time, maybe half or a third of a pack.

I will ask my mum kindly (whilst creeping ALOT!) to braid my hair up next time. I will then attempt to sew in the wefts myself whilst at her house so she can help out if I get stuck. I really need to learn how to do this myself and I really think this will be the only way I can possibly get my mum involved in the next install as I really think I put her right off ever doing my hair AGAIN!!! Sorry mum xx

I will put less thread in my hair when sewing in the wefts to minimise friction and potential breakage.

I will keep the same braid patter but move the part to the other side to minimise continued stress on the same bit of leave out hair.

My favorite technique for the best blending natural hair and Clip In Indian Remy Hair Extensions; both fine hair and medium to thick hair is the beaded weft extensions. With the NBR (natural beaded rows) extensions 1 row no more then 3 rows are installed using hand tied hair and stacking them to customize beautiful naturally blended hair extensions. It looks so natural no one will not know its not your real hair.